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KFOG Flips To KNBR Simulcast

The final day was great. I listened off/on all day. It was much better than expected. The Program Director acknowledged that they had outside help putting things together for the final day.

Very rare for any radio station to go out this way. I doubt there was any economic benefit to do this (assume all the ad buys were long done). Obviously, enough people cared...and someone with power had a heart. Well done!
 
adradio said:
The final day was great. I listened off/on all day. It was much better than expected. The Program Director acknowledged that they had outside help putting things together for the final day.

Very rare for any radio station to go out this way. I doubt there was any economic benefit to do this (assume all the ad buys were long done). Obviously, enough people cared...and someone with power had a heart. Well done!
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NYC's WPLJ (also a Cumulus discard) had a similar on-air goodbye that went on for several days-- and got them their highest cume in years.

The 10@10s were nicely chosen, esp the "Devil Music" set, which at original airing was subtitled "Songs for the End". It was an idea I had suggested to Dave at the time -- the date was 6/6/06, get it? -- and I even got a shout-out from him at the conclusion. Those were indeed the days.
 
adradio said:
When Cumulus came in the heavy cost cutting began. For Dave, not sure if it was a salary cut, a lower than expected increase, cutting back of other DJs, less freedom and control, but Dave was not happy when Cumulus came on board. I recall Cumulus tried to continue having Dave doing 10@10 remotely from Michigan, but again economics and control issues came up and Dave passed on it.
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This makes total sense, and was a far too often story at many stations Cumulus bought. From what I gathered, if you were a personality that really brought in the money for a station, you were allowed to continue as is. But if you didn't bring in significant ratings, your opinion meant little. Here in Minneapolis, they acquired KQRS and 93X (along with what was then Love 105). They largely left KQRS alone, as back then it was a number 1 or 2 station in many demos. Love 105 saw the first changes, and ultimate end of the first run, under Cumulus leadership, and 93X was tooled soon after.

It's a shame what Cumulus did to the station, I'm sure it made business sense to someone, somewhere, but not all moves by Cumulus always made sense. The greatest example I can think of is the aforementioned "Love 105" had just flipped to AC after the market lost their heritage one. The signals had their best book EVER (its 3 rimshot signals that were paired together by a previous owner to make 1 station that covers 70 percent of the market). 3 months later, the format was dumped for CBS Sports Radio, which failed spectacularly. Years later they are still trying to regain the glory of what was Love 105 (by relaunching it as a Softer AC with an emphasis on Oldies).
 
adradio said:
The final day was great. I listened off/on all day. It was much better than expected. The Program Director acknowledged that they had outside help putting things together for the final day.

Very rare for any radio station to go out this way. I doubt there was any economic benefit to do this (assume all the ad buys were long done). Obviously, enough people cared...and someone with power had a heart. Well done!
Click to expand...

It was a fun listen as someone who hadn't really listened in the past. I couldn't see the "old" Cumulus allowing these things to happen, but I am glad that new Cumulus seems to have learned from past mistakes and is trying to right the ship (it just came too late for KFOG).

What would have been really cool is if they would have had Dave back in to do one final 10@10, although I think that would have been a logistical nightmare, and probably not something he would have wanted to do given the circumstances of his retirement (and Cumulus running the station into the ground since he had left).

They did a great job with what they had, and at least Cumulus allowed it to happen (as they did with PLJ and Mix in DC). Shows a bit of class.
 
mnradiofan said:
This makes total sense, and was a far too often story at many stations Cumulus bought. From what I gathered, if you were a personality that really brought in the money for a station, you were allowed to continue as is. But if you didn't bring in significant ratings, your opinion meant little.
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Perhaps by that time, he wasn't bringing in the money as much as he had prior. I think he knew what was happening. Consider all the cultural and social changes happening in the area during that time. All the new people moving into the area brought by all the tech companies. They had no vested interests in the existing culture. In the same way the rockers of the 60s didn't care about what preceded them. It was a very similar revolution that happened, and a lot of existing radio formats were no longer relevant to the area. I know Dred Scott and he saw it happen in both LA and SF. Both cities saw heritage rock stations go away. In LA, the legendary KMET got flipped to smooth jazz in the 80s! Imagine that! That was a different time, but the same result. Dred was also at KSWD in LA, and it got sold to EMF. With KFOG, they just hung around too long, past the expiration date.
 
TheBigA said:
Perhaps by that time, he wasn't bringing in the money as much as he had prior. I think he knew what was happening. Consider all the cultural and social changes happening in the area during that time. All the new people moving into the area brought by all the tech companies. They had no vested interests in the existing culture. In the same way the rockers of the 60s didn't care about what preceded them. It was a very similar revolution that happened, and a lot of existing radio formats were no longer relevant to the area. I know Dred Scott and he saw it happen in both LA and SF. Both cities saw heritage rock stations go away. In LA, the legendary KMET got flipped to smooth jazz in the 80s! Imagine that! That was a different time, but the same result. Dred was also at KSWD in LA, and it got sold to EMF. With KFOG, they just hung around too long, past the expiration date.
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Well, and when I mean "made money" I mean "was the reason a station was number 1 in the money demos". My point of reference for this is Tom Bernard. KQRS has been touched very little, and is one of probably very few Cumulus stations that is live and local outside of major drivetime shifts. While many other things at the station were cut (and even Tom has taken his share of paycuts) it feels like the station is largely untouched, while other stations even within the cluster have taken massive cuts, had formats changed, etc.

Once Cumulus can no longer make Tom Barnard happy, KQRS will likely no longer be such a large contender (even Tom has lost many listeners from his heyday). But then again, he is one of a few jocks that even beat Howard Stern in his prime, so that's a bit more powerful than the entirety of KFOG was at the time.
 
mnradiofan said:
Once Cumulus can no longer make Tom Barnard happy, KQRS will likely no longer be such a large contender (even Tom has lost many listeners from his heyday). But then again, he is one of a few jocks that even beat Howard Stern in his prime, so that's a bit more powerful than the entirety of KFOG was at the time.
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KQRS is a classic rock station. That's a different situation from one that plays current music. At some point the audience will tire of classic rock as its presented on KQRS, regardless of the airstaff. When that happens, there will likely be some changes.
 
TheBigA said:
Perhaps by that time, he wasn't bringing in the money as much as he had prior. I think he knew what was happening. Consider all the cultural and social changes happening in the area during that time. All the new people moving into the area brought by all the tech companies. They had no vested interests in the existing culture. In the same way the rockers of the 60s didn't care about what preceded them. It was a very similar revolution that happened, and a lot of existing radio formats were no longer relevant to the area. I know Dred Scott and he saw it happen in both LA and SF. Both cities saw heritage rock stations go away. In LA, the legendary KMET got flipped to smooth jazz in the 80s! Imagine that! That was a different time, but the same result. Dred was also at KSWD in LA, and it got sold to EMF. With KFOG, they just hung around too long, past the expiration date.
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Is this why the two news stations have completely swallowed up the music stations in the ratings or is there something else at play?
 
macattack said:
Is this why the two news stations have completely swallowed up the music stations in the ratings or is there something else at play?
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It's interesting to me that KCBS and KQED have two very different approaches, one is for short attention spans, the other goes deep, and they're both at the top. And KNBR is up there too.

On the other hand, there is no consensus music format. People like what people like. It reflects the musical diversity of the city.
 
macattack said:
Is this why the two news stations have completely swallowed up the music stations in the ratings or is there something else at play?
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The two news stations between them average about 10 shares in 25-54, while the rest of the pack has 90 shares. I don't quite see that as being "swallowed up".

In fact, the next two stations on a rolling average comparison would be KLLC and KOIT, which are just a tad under 10 shares combined. We would not, of course, say that AC has swallowed up the other formats.
 
TheBigA said:
It's interesting to me that KCBS and KQED have two very different approaches, one is for short attention spans, the other goes deep, and they're both at the top. And KNBR is up there too.

On the other hand, there is no consensus music format. People like what people like. It reflects the musical diversity of the city.
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Isn't Washington D.C. similar to San Francisco in some way and thats the News outlets like WAMU and WTOP take the top spots in the DC Radio Market and its on FM too.

WAMU-FM the NPR News/talk affiliate uses the deep as you say and WTOP-FM is notable for being the "You Give us 22 Minutes and we give you the world" approach also notable for having the highest revenue for a station in the DC Market and in some years mentioned as having the top revenue in the USA.
 
TheBigA said:
KQRS is a classic rock station. That's a different situation from one that plays current music. At some point the audience will tire of classic rock as its presented on KQRS, regardless of the airstaff. When that happens, there will likely be some changes.
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Or, the audience will age out. I am not saying KQRS has had NO changes. The music library has drifted more and more into the 80's over the years, and I could see a time where they start picking up a few of the biggest rock hits of the 90's as well (the same way that Oldies stations drifted newer and newer, and eventually transitioned to classic hits stations, and are themselves now starting to add more and more 90's product).

My point was that, KQRS had a number one morning show, by QUITE a large margin for a long time (I don't believe this is the case any longer, but was for all of the 90s and early 2000's). Having a show that pulls in a 20 share 12+ and even higher in the money demos probably helps a large corporation like Cumulus to look the other way and let the station keep doing what it's doing (or at the very least, leaving the morning show alone). I know it certainly helped the cluster's billing numbers. But, a station that is profitable but not THAT profitable is much more prone to being tinkered with, or having a management team see the talent as mere bodies filling chairs.
 
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